Welcome to the Aim High Reach, the newsletter of Aim High! Stay connected with Aim High throughout the year with highlights from the program, news and happenings from our headquarters, and information on the many ingredients that make the Aim High recipe work for 23 years and counting.
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View more editions of the Aim High Reach: Sept 08 , Nov 08 , Dec 08, Feb 09, March 09, May 09, June 09
In This Issue:
Purchase Tickets Now for Cult Wines and Classic Cars: A Unique Evening in Support of Aim High
Aim High Revamps Math, Science, College Awareness Curricula for Summer 2009
Spotlight: Three Aim High Teachers Making an Impact in Education
Great Outdoors, Great Kids: Photos from Aim High Spring Break Excusrions
Purchase Tickets Now for Cult Wines and Classic Cars: A Unique Evening in Support of Aim High
We hope you'll join Aim High supporters and car and wine enthusiasts at Cult Wines and Classic Cars, a unique wine-tasting event, held on Saturday, May 16th, from 6:00-9:00 pm at the Academy of Art University's Classic Car Museum in San Francisco.
The Classic Car Museum is a privately-owned collection of 55 mint-condition rarities housed at the Academy of Art University. Accessed by students of the School of Industrial Design for study and inspiration, the museum is not open to the public. This is a rare opportunity to view San Francisco’s finest collection of antique cars.
Bottlenotes.com specializes in boutique and estate wines, available through Bottlenotes’ website, events and wine clubs. CEO Alyssa Rapp, author of Around the World in 80 Sips, is customizing a selection of wines for this event.
The evening will also include a silent auction featuring unique items and opportunities for wine and car aficionados, and a raffle for 48 hours’ rental of a smart car, compliments of smart center of San Francisco. Raffle tickets are priced at $20 and are available for online or at the event.
We hope you'll join us for this unforgettable evening in support of the Bay Area’s top provider of summer education programs for low-income youth.
Tickets are on sale now at acteva.com. More event information is available at www.aimhigh.org/event.
Aim High Revamps Math, Science, College Awareness Curricula for Summer 2009
As Aim High gears up for its 24th summer, the Teaching and Learning department is unveiling new measures to ready low-income Bay Area middle schoolers for bright futures.
This summer, Aim High is working to boost achievement in math, deepen students’ connection to the environment through science education, and make college more accessible.
The need for great education programs at the middle school level has never been more apparent. Recent research indicates that students' preparedness for academic challenges at the middle school level is a significant indicator of success in college and careers.
According to a 2008 study published by ACT, “the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school.”
Sandra Korison Lee, Aim High’s first Director of Academics and Program Evaluation, notes that Aim High is uniquely able to address the need for strong support in the middle school years, with a model that balances youth development and academic enrichment, designed specifically for this age group to thrive.
“Aim High is a community that encourages students to make social and academic connections that spark a love of learning,” she says. “The positive attitudes and habits that students form during middle school can propel them towards success in dramatic ways.”
This year’s Teaching and Learning improvements center on 9th grade science curriculum, career and college awareness, and math skills.
Deana Scipio, a veteran teacher at Aim High’s Headlands Environmental Home (AH-HEH) Program, is working with Lee to integrate environmental science and stewardship into 9th grade science curriculum.
All Aim High 9th graders from San Francisco campuses attend one week of environmental education at one of Aim High’s three Environmental Home sites in the Marin Headlands. This year’s curriculum improvements will help connect that week-long experience, which many students consider to be the most memorable and transformative of their Aim High years, to classroom lessons exploring the environment and sustainability.
Aim High will also increase its focus on college awareness and career preparedness with new curriculum for Issues and Choices classes.
Sylvia Gillies, a lifelong educator with deep experience helping students plan the path to college, has tailored career and college activities to the unique Issues and Choices curriculum, which gives students the opportunity to explore leadership, personal development, and community in a classroom setting.
Lessons for 6th and 7th graders explore why college is important and how it is possible for all students; 8th and 9th graders will learn how to choose high school classes, apply to the schools that fit their needs and interests, and find financial aid.
Aim High sites will integrate the new lessons into their already strong programs of college awareness activities, including college tour field trips, guest speakers, college panels, and college preparedness workshops.
Funding from the GAP Foundation enabled Aim High to tackle this crucial topic.
Finally, new math curriculum will be introduced at four Aim High campuses in a pilot program that helps students develop the core skills to support Algebra readiness for the 8th grade. Research show that success in Algebra is a key predictor of success in high school and college.
With support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Aim High has purchased a proven curriculum that prepares students to meet California state standards for math and tailor it to Aim High’s educational model.
Lee is working in collaboration with Wendy Ginsburg, a veteran middle school math teacher and site director at Aim High’s ER Taylor/SF Community site, to launch the pilot.
Ultimately, Lee hopes to make the most of Aim High’s model and network of educators to support what schools do during the academic year. “This year’s strategic planning process has shown us how we can have a greater impact on students’ academic trajectory.”
“We’re focused on improving teacher training, piloting curriculum, and further developing our online resources for teachers, helping all sites put their students on a path for success in school.”
Spotlight: Three Aim High Teachers Making an Impact in Education
More than just a great youth development and education program, Aim High is an organization that develops outstanding teachers who go on to be leaders in the field of education. This month’s e-news features a few of the teachers who have made Aim High a great place to learn and grow over the past 24 years.
From the Bay Area to Nairobi and from classroom teacher to charter school pioneer, Ventura Rodriguez has carried the Aim High magic into myriad corners of the education landscape.
Ventura was a teacher on the founding staff of Gateway High School, a charter school in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood, when he met Alec Lee at a teacher training program offered by Aim High and the Bay Area Teachers Center. Drawn to the sense of community and fun promoted by the Aim High program, Ventura joined the summer teaching staff at the Urban School, Aim High’s second site, in 1999, then served for thee years as site director at the Ben Franklin and Roosevelt sites.
With education leadership skills honed at Aim High, Ventura went on to teach at the International School of Kenya in Nairobi, then returned to the US to take part in the prestigious New Leaders for New Schools principal training program. In fall of 2008, Ventura founded the St. Hope Leadership Academy Charter School in Harlem, New York City.
For Ventura, a critical part of the Aim High experience was the opportunity for young educators to be innovative in the classroom. “One thing Aim High does powerfully is creating a school environment where kids like to be there and adults feel that they are growing and having fun.” Aim High also offers leadership opportunities for young educators, giving Ventura his first experience managing a staff. “When I think of myself as a leader running a school,” Ventura says, “I think back to Aim High.”
Though he has moved on from Aim High to great accomplishments in the field of education, Ventura still considers Aim High a touchstone of his experience in great teaching and learning. “In education there are a lot of fads, but Aim High has been a constant. Aim High figured out what kind of support is critical for kids and stuck with it.”
From the moment he stepped into an Aim High classroom the summer after his 6th grade year, Cameron Yuen-Shore recognized the unique feeling of community that defines Aim High – and he’s been a part of that community ever since.
Cameron began his story with Aim High in 1999 as a student at the Lick-Wilmerding site, and has served on the faculty as a teaching assistant, intern, and master teacher. This year, Cameron will spend his 11th summer with Aim High before beginning work on his teaching credential in the fall.
“For me, Aim High magic is a feeling of unity and support. As a 7th grader, I felt encouraged by other students as I tried for the first time things that were completely terrifying. As a teaching assistant, I was reassured by the support of more experienced faculty, and as an intern, I felt the support of my students as I led my first lessons.”
“What is most special to me is that now, as a master teacher, I see that supportive experience happening all around me, every day. It’s not a unique phenomenon – Aim High is touching the lives of thousands of people.”
After he graduates from Occidental College in a little over a month, Cameron will return to San Francisco for his 11th summer at Lick Wilmerding, then begin working toward his teaching credential through the Bay Area Teacher Training Institute (BATTI).
“I want to try and duplicate the magical experience of working at Aim High,” says Cameron of the BATTI program, which features small class sizes and 2-year placement with a mentor teacher. Cameron will work at the Nueva School, which he describes as “kind of like going to school at the Academy of Sciences and the Exploratorium put together.”
Cameron’s interest in being a great educator, in changing the lives of Bay Area youth by giving them rich, memorable learning experiences, is rooted in his own experience of being a student at Aim High, and it keeps him coming back. “If I can duplicate for one student anything close to the feelings that I had every summer at Aim High, it would be enough to keep me coming back every summer for the rest of my life.”
Zoe Duskin has been on the path of education since her first summer as a TA at Aim High, back when she was a student at Lick-Wilmerding High School. After graduating from Barnard College, Zoe taught high school history at a charter school in Washington, DC, and returned to the Bay Area in 2007, working on curriculum development, professional development, and strategic planning as the Instructional Reform Facilitator at Galileo High School.
Throughout her work in public schools and in education policy, Aim High has been an inspiration to Zoe. “Aim High helps me maintain my own idealism, my belief in what education can be - because I’ve seen it.”
“I think it’s very easy in today’s educational environment to think that nothing is really possible. For me, Aim High is proof that, if education is done effectively, schools can serve students. It’s not a fairyland dreamy bubble. Aim High is real, and we’re involving a lot of kids.”
Zoe’s site at St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Oakland serves about 100 kids– roughly 5% of the number of students served at Galileo. Despite the difference in scale, Duskin finds herself asking, “How can I make this place more like Aim High? How can I make 110 teachers feel like a collaborative team? How can families be invited to get involved more effectively? When I’m looking at a school or an education system, I default to that Aim High lens.”
Zoe’s Aim High lens is being put to good use this year as she finishes her Masters in Education Policy and Organizational Leadership at Stanford. She intends to go into high school administration and continue as a site director at Aim High.
Though her focus has broadened beyond the classroom, Zoe’s interest in education is all about doing great things for great kids: “the stiflingly shy 7th grader who learned to take the risk and answer questions in class; the disruptive 8th grader who was brought to tears when he heard us say ‘we want you to be here,’ as if it were his first time; and the tiny 5th graders who arrive nervous and leave Aim High ready for what’s ahead” are the memories she takes away from her many years with the program.
For these reasons and more, Zoe says, “I’m really grateful to be involved with Aim High and honored to be a part of its staff. Aim High raises the bar in education.”
Great Outdoors, Great Kids: Photos from Aim High Spring Break Excusrions
The editors of this newsletter felt there were too few incredible kids in this month's newsletter. Enjoy these photos of the courageous climbers who attended Aim High's Spring Break trip to the Ropes Course at Fort Miley in the Presidio, and look out for next month's newsletter with our sincere compliments. And yes, that is a child standing atop a 20-foot pole. Ah, the fearlessness of youth.
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View more editions of the Aim High Reach: Sept 08 , Nov 08 , Dec 08, Feb 09, May 09
Aim High is gearing up for another strong year serving Bay Area students and families - but we need your help to serve a thousand kids in a year when they need us most. Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues. To find out about other ways to support Aim High, visit Aim High's Support Page.
For more information on any of these topics, contact Kat White, Communications Coordinator, by email or phone: 415-551-2333.